Journal article
What is the role of sea surface temperature in modulating cloud and precipitation properties over the Southern Ocean?
Y Huang, ST Siems, MJ Manton, D Rosenfeld, R Marchand, GM McFarquhar, A Protat
Journal of Climate | AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC | Published : 2016
Abstract
This study employs four years of spatiotemporally collocated A-Train satellite observations to investigate cloud and precipitation characteristics in relation to the underlying properties of the Southern Ocean (SO). Results show that liquid-phase cloud properties strongly correlate with the sea surface temperature (SST). In summer, ubiquitous supercooled liquid water (SLW) is observed over SSTs less than about 4°C. Cloud-top temperature (CTT) and effective radius of liquid-phase clouds generally decrease for colder SSTs, whereas the opposite trend is observed for cloud-top height, cloud optical thickness, and liquid water path. The deduced cloud depth is larger over the colder oceans. Notabl..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This work is supported by Australian Research Council Grant LP120100115. The research was directly inspired by the "Workshop on Clouds, Aerosols, Radiation and Air-Sea Interface of the Southern Ocean: Establishing Directions for Future Research" hosted by Prof. Robert Wood at University of Washington in March 2014.